


Rocket Man

by Maverick



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-17
Updated: 2014-05-17
Packaged: 2018-01-25 10:06:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1644860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maverick/pseuds/Maverick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for: the B-Movie Ficathon<br/>B-Movie Prompt: <em>Radar Men from the Moon</em>. The summary is at the end of the story.<br/>Thanks to: kitestringer and rileyc for their suggestions and encouragment. And thanks to xanphibian for such an awesome challenge.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Rocket Man

**Author's Note:**

> Written for: the B-Movie Ficathon  
> B-Movie Prompt: _Radar Men from the Moon_. The summary is at the end of the story.  
>  Thanks to: kitestringer and rileyc for their suggestions and encouragment. And thanks to xanphibian for such an awesome challenge.

_Prologue_ :  
  
Rodney ducks behind a large rock and waits for Sheppard to skid in beside him. As John reloads his P-90, Rodney pulls out his own sidearm, waving it wildly in front of him. Rodney's eyes are wide and his movements skittish. "Do you ever get the feeling that our life has turned into a really bad sci-fi movie?"  
  
John pops his head up over the rock, checking the progression of the mob chasing them. "What makes you say that?" he asks, putting his hand on the barrel of Rodney's gun.  
  
Rodney gets the hint and stops waving it. "I don't know...the space vampires, the nanoviruses, the Genii. An entire planet waging war against Ronon's hair."  
  
"Hey, they calmed down once we proved his dreadlocks weren't sentient." John motions to Rodney to retreat farther back toward the tree line. He lays down a line of fire, bullets skidding across the dirt before he follows Rodney again.  
  
Watching John dash toward him, Rodney aims and fires his gun, stopping the nearest villager's advance as John leaps and rolls for cover.  
  
After a few seconds of silence, Rodney continues the conversation like nothing has happened. "I'm still not sure about that one. Sometimes it feels like he has eyes in the back of his head."  
  
John turns and looks at Rodney, his expression equal parts incredulous and concern. "Ronon? And we're discussing this now because?"  
  
Rodney frowns, waving his hands and his gun again. "I don't know. Maybe because it takes my mind off of how we're probably going to die horribly any second."  
  
John pushes Rodney down and fires above his head, taking out the three advancing hostiles. "Not to worry, the hero never dies in bad sci-fi movies. Now the trusty sidekick however..."  
  
"Very funny Colonel. And who decided you get to be the hero anyway?"  
  
John never gets the chance to answer him as they're beamed aboard the Daedalus.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
John's watching Ronon make easy work of the eight marines fighting him. He has to give them credit, they come to each training session with renewed vigor and hope that they might be able to beat Dex. They never do, and John's reasonably sure they never will, but he doesn't want them to lose that hope, so he pats their backs and says, "good game, maybe next time," before they limp off, their bodies as bruised as their egos.  
  
"You want a go, Sheppard?" Ronon asks, his smile a bit too feral for John's liking.  
  
But before he can think up a legitimate excuse as to why he doesn't feel like getting his own butt kicked today, his radio goes off, saving the day.  
  
"Colonel Sheppard, this is McKay."  
  
John leans against the practice dummy as he clicks on his radio. "This is Sheppard. Go ahead."  
  
"I think I found something you're going to want to see."  
  
John can't place Rodney's tone of voice. The usual annoyance is strangely absent. "Can it wait? I was just going to spar with Ronon," John says, looking over at the other man, who's taking a swig of water. John can tell from Ronon's expression that he doesn't believe that Sheppard was actually planning on sparring with him at all.  
  
"So sorry to cost you your latest chance at permanent brain damage, but no, this can't wait. I'm in the new lab off the northwest pier."  
  
"Is it an emergency?"  
  
"No. But you should still get here sooner rather than later."  
  
John smiles. There's the annoyance he knows so well. He nods to Ronon before heading out the door. "I'm on my way."  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
When John enters the lab, Rodney and Zelenka stop what they are doing and look at him with such glee that John's momentarily afraid of what this could mean. Best case scenario is a cache of fully charged ZPMs, worst case, another Doranda.  
  
"So nice of you to join us Colonel," Rodney says, the smile on his face in direct contradiction to his tone.  
  
"I took the scenic route. What's so important Rodney?"  
  
Rodney and Zelenka just look at each other again before stepping to the side to reveal what's behind them.  
  
"What's this?" John asks looking at the item hanging from a jury-rigged t-bar. It's some sort of outfit made from a material that looks like rubber. "Oooh, a wet suit. For surfing?"  
  
"Yes Colonel. Radek and I brought you down here hoping you'd be a righteous dude and show us how to catch some bitchin' waves."  
  
John does his best not to laugh at Rodney's pitch-perfect surfer accent. Instead he reaches out and touches the outfit. His fingertips tingle as he pulls them away. It feels not unlike a reaction to static electricity but much stronger. "It looks like a wet suit. If it's not that, what is it?"  
  
Zelenka steps back and spreads out his arms like wings. "I'll give you hint. There's no cape or big red S emblazoned across it, but..."  
  
John stops him mid-sentence. He can feel himself bounce in place, and a smile stretches across his face. "It's a flying suit?"  
  
"Yes it is." Rodney reaches out and starts taking the suit off the rack. "Radek and I figured you might want to be the one to try it out."  
  
"Oh yeah," John says, his excitement unmistakable. He can't help but meet Rodney's eyes and smile. And Rodney's answering wide grin almost makes John as happy as the flying suit does. Almost.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Zelenka stays behind in the lab to monitor the suit's performance on the computers while Rodney and John walk through the bay doors out onto the pier. Once John is zipped into the suit and the visor plugged into place, he feels a sense of rightness he's only known inside the cockpit of a plane, or more recently a puddle jumper. He listens to Rodney explain how the visor measures airspeed, trajectory and wind currents, but the suit is already responding to his body and mind like it's been waiting for him for all these years. He thinks "up" and his feet rise off the ground.  
  
John's hovering a good three feet off the ground before Rodney realizes it. "Colonel, you might want to familiarize yourself with the safety mechanisms before you land on your ass. Or you know, crash down on top of me."  
  
John smiles and he lowers himself back to the ground. "Come on now Rodney, you'd catch me, wouldn't you?"  
  
"Cushion your fall is more like it," Rodney says before showing John how to control his speed and monitor the energy levels.  
  
It seems the suit is much like scuba gear in that the crystals that power it only hold so much energy. They are essentially the Ancients' version of batteries and will have to be recharged after each use. John listens intently but the suit is thrumming around him and all he wants to do is listen to its impulses and fly.  
  
Rodney seems to understand this and grasps John's shoulder and says, "Okay, go for it."  
  
John thinks "up" again and lifts off with much more speed than he did the first time. He can feel the wind on his face as he ascends high above the pier. He's never felt more free. Rodney had insisted that he keep his radio on underneath the visor so he could stay in contact. He'd complained at first, but now he's glad he can share this. Especially with Rodney.  
  
Rodney's voice breaks through his revelry. "Are you planning on any other direction besides up? Flight implies moving forward."  
  
Normally John would argue the point because taking flight means so much more, but seeing Rodney's the one who made it possible for him to actually *fly*, he lets it slide. John leans forward and the suit takes over, propelling him over the ocean and across the sky. "This is so cool."  
  
"Could you try and be a bit more verbose there Colonel. Cool's not exactly helpful scientific data."  
  
John can hear the smile in Rodney's voice, even if he's just a tiny blip on the end of the pier now. "Okay. This is really, really cool."  
  
"Colonel."  
  
"Sorry. The suit seems to provide some sort of shield, a kind of protective bubble around me. I'm moving at about 60 mph and the atmosphere is having no effect on me. And it definitely has inertial dampeners as well."  
  
"We expected as much. It's not unlike the personal shield I found, but it seems to be much more sensitive to the gene."  
  
John knows this because the suit anticipates his every move, his every wish. It's very similar to the feeling he gets when he flies the puddlejumper but more intense. He dives downward before spiraling back around until he's shooting up high into the sky. Then he does the same maneuver backwards, building more and more speed with each pass. He could play like this forever.  
  
Rodney's voice comes through on his fourth downward spiral. "Knock it off Sheppard. Just watching you is making me nauseous. Let's save the aerial acrobatics until we know more about how the suit works."  
  
John evens out his flight. "You're no fun Rodney."  
  
"Neither's crashing into the ocean."  
  
John feels a cold chill run through him for the first time since he'd taken off. He knows it has nothing to do with the atmosphere. He heads back toward the pier and slowly descends until he's standing in front of Rodney. "Seriously, this is so cool."  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
Once John has stripped off the suit, he feels strangely naked, like a snake shedding his skin. It takes him a moment to remember how to walk on the ground. He's filled with a sense of euphoria that he knows will be addictive. He already can't wait until he can do it again.  
  
When he walks back into the lab, Zelenka is gone and Rodney is hunched over the ancient consoles which are spiraling streams of data from the suit. "Hey Rodney, you think maybe tomorrow we could rig up a cape?"  
  
Rodney looks up from his computer, his expression one that John would characterize as fond exasperation. "Probably, but we are *not* painting the suit bright blue."  
  
"What about adding a red S? My name is Sheppard, you know."  
  
Rodney just rolls his eyes. "While you certainly have the hair, overall you're much too scrawny to be Superman. Now go away, I need to process this data."  
  
John has been called heroic since before he joined the Air Force. He lets people see him that way because it shields him from ever having to reveal what's really going on underneath. Rodney's always been allergic to such pronouncements and John's grateful for that. He knows that Rodney, more than anyone, sees John for who he is and who he really wants to be, and that's a gift even more precious than a suit that lets him fly.  
  
It takes a moment before Rodney realizes he's still there. "What part of go away don't you understand? You can't take it up again until at least tomorrow, so..." Rodney stops and stares at him. "Please tell me you weren't serious about the cape? Delusions of grandeur don't become you Colonel."  
  
John stops and waits until Rodney meets his eyes. "Thanks Rodney."  
  
"Oh." Rodney smiles shyly before recovering. "You're welcome. All for the betterment of science of course," he says with a flutter of his hand.  
  
John winks at him. "Of course."  
  
Deep down, John's always known who he thinks the real hero is on this expedition. And maybe one day, he'll find the courage to tell him.  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Radar Men From the Moon
> 
> Strategic targets on Earth are being destroyed by an unknown weapon. Government security head Henderson suspects it's an "atomic ray" originating from the moon! He assigns Commando Cody, scientist and man of action with a secret flying suit, to investigate. Soon, Cody is battling Earth thugs in the pay of Krog the moon man and making trips in his experimental rocket to the moon itself, in a perilous and all but single-handed effort to thwart the planned invasion of Earth.
> 
> **Author's Notes** : When I got my prompt, my first thought was, "flying suit, Sheppard would think that was so cool. Hence this fic was born.


End file.
